Sandbox5
Ratemall Corporation has an automated employee ratings system. :* "Supervisor" means the person to whom an employee directly reports. :* "Manager" means the person to whom the employee's supervisor directly reports. Employee Recommendations The Web-based form for promotion or award recommendation includes checkboxes for the the supervisor's and the manager's endorsement of the recommendation. If the option "not endorsed" is checked, the supervisor or manager who checked that box must provide a brief explanation in the associated text field. In general, supervisors recommend (and their "endorse" box is automatically checked for their own recommendations), managers endorse, and a corporate Board decides on promotions and awards. However, a recommendation can come also from a person who is not the supervisor. In that case, the recommendation still normally goes to the manager, who will normally obtain the supervisor's decision to endorse or not-endorse before sending it along to the Board. But a manager, or supervisor, or anyone, may choose to send a recommendation to the Board without the supervisor's or manager's endorsement, though that is very rare and unlikely to be successful. To do this, the person submitting the recommendation must check the "not-endorsed" box for the supervisor and/or manager and must provide an explanation as to why the recommendation is being submitted without a normal endorsement. The "endorsed" box can only be checked only by the authorized person (by the supervisor or by the manager), and will be digitally signed. But the "not endorsed" box, which will also be digitally signed, can be checked by anyone. Again, normally, the supervisor or the manager is the one who checks this box and provides the required explanation. He/she then sends the recommendation "up" if endorsed (up to the manager or up to the Board) or "back" if not endorsed (back to the person from whom the recommendation came). If a not-endorsed recommendation "comes back," the originator can still decide to forward it to the Board, so long as the not-endorsed box(es) have been checked and digitally signed, and so long as explanations have been provided. Automated Rating System (ARS) Then, to be promoted or awarded, an employee must be eligible and suitable. The Board decides suitability based on recommendations and the Automated Ratings System, hereafter referred to as the ARS. It is important to remember that the ARS, alone, does not determine suitability. The ARS is only one factor that is considered by the Board. The Board will also look at the text of the recommendations, and may also consider other factors. Once the Board decides that a recommended employee is suitable, a promotion or award is granted. The ARS, however, determines eligibility. In fact, the system will not allow recommendations for employees who are not eligible. Good Standing To be eligible for promotion or award, an employee must be in good standing within the ARS for 3 consecutive months. To be in good standing, the employee must have received credit for rating other employees during each calendar month since the employee entered into the system. At the beginning of every month, the ARS provides the employee with a short list of employees to be rated, and the employee must rate all of them by the end of the month to remain eligible for promotion or award. If, at the end of the month, an employee has not rated all, the ARS will require that more be rated during the next month, and the employee will regain eligibility when the deficit is made up. If, over the span of 3 months, an employee has not made up a deficit, the employee will be permanently ineligible for award or promotion, but may petition the Board to re-enter the system. If the Board agrees, the deficit is removed and the employee regains eligibility after achieving 3 consecutive months of good standing. If the Board does not agree, the employee will never be eligible for award or promotion, and may want to consider retiring or seeking employment elsewhere. There is no penalty for non-participation. An employee who is content to receive no awards may continue working at his/her present grade without ever participating in the ARS. Monthly Rating Requirement Each month the ARS selects five names from a list of 20 other employees that the employee is eligible to rate or required to rate. The "core list" contains the names of those the employee is required to rate. The core list may be much fewer than 20, but will never be fewer than five. The "extended list" includes the core list and always totals 20 names. If the core list is fewer than 20, the ARS system selects and regularly adjusts other names based on a number of factors (including analysis of email patterns and the system's own requirements for statistical integrity) to make up the difference. For these additional names on the extended list, the employee has the option to record "no opinion" for any or all of the questions posed, but the employee must still submit a response for each. The list presented at the beginning of the month will contain just five names, selected by the ARS from the core list. However, every time a rating is submitted for one of the five, the employee is asked to rate another person selected by the ARS from the extended list, such that 10 responses will be submitted by the employee every month. The Core List The supervisor and employee must agree on a list of no fewer than 5 and no more than 20 and select their names within the ARS. These names can be changed at any time, so long as the supervisor and the employee agree. But these names must at all times include the supervisor, the supervisor's other direct subordinates (those that have regular contact with the employee), and the employee's own immediate subordinates if the employee is a supervisor. If that number is fewer than 5, the supervisor and employee will need to select others with whom the employee has regular professional contact in order to make up the difference. (The manager can and should be included if the manager has regular professional contact with the employee.) For convenience, the ARS provides the supervisor and the employee with a list of names to choose from, beginning with the supervisor and the direct subordinates, and including also the names of others with whom the employee may have the most regular contact based on email aliases and exchanges. Below this is a global list of all other employees. The supervisor's name and the names of the supervisor's and employee's direct subordinates are already checked, up to a maximum of 20 names. This is the starting list. The supervisor or employee only need to select additional names if the number is fewer than five. If the supervisor checks or un-checks a name, a new proposed list is submitted to the employee for approval, and if the employee checks or un-checks a name, a new proposed list is submitted to the supervisor for approval. This continues until a list proposed by one of them is approved by the other without changes. But even then, at any time, the supervisor or the employee can go back into the list and make whatever changes seem desirable or necessary (as when someone on the list changes jobs), but these changes will similarly require the other's approval before taking effect. If unchanged, the core list must be re-approved by both at least once per year. Ratings Only five must be answered to submit a rating. All are multiple choice questions. For each question, there are only five possible answers (not counting "no opinion"). Each of the five questions begins the same way. How would you compare this employee to every other employee you know in regard to * Work ethic, productivity and achievements? # Among the worst of any employees with whom I am familiar. # Clearly below average, but not among the very worst. # A typical good employee. # Among the very best. Clearly above average. # The best of any employees with whom I am familiar. * Professional skill level and knowledge? * Honesty, integrity and reliability? * Leadership, creativity and innovation? * Teaming and interpersonal relationships?" For each question, the employee may rate no more than four persons as being "among the worst," and may rate no more than one person as being "the very best."